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Dracut selectmen, manager won't back $3M override plan

By John Collins, jcollins@lowellsun.com

Updated:
04/10/2013 12:41:27 PM EDT

DRACUT -- If the School Committee goes ahead with its plan to seek a nearly $3 million Proposition 2 1/2 override from Town Meeting in June and voters in a July special election, it will do it alone, without the backing of either selectmen or town manager, a packed Harmony Hall meeting audience was told.

Opening Tuesday night's third joint brainstorming session in two months to discuss the financial crisis facing Dracut Public Schools, School Committee member Dan O'Connell asked selectmen and Town Manager Dennis Piendak to join the School Committee to present "a unified front" to voters in seeking a $2.9 million override.

O'Connell was verbally rebuffed by Piendak and all five selectmen.

"I will put (the $2.9 million override) on the ballot," said Selectman George Malliaros, addressing O'Connell directly, "and I will also say this in front of you: I believe education is very important, but as a selectman I can't make people in this town feel guilty about voting against raising their taxes and voting against an override... I'm not going to lie to you that I'm going to stand on a soapbox and support this."

Selectmen Chairwoman Cathy Richardson said she could not back an override that would add $300 a year onto the tax bill of the average Dracut taxpayer owning a $277,000 home. Richardson also several times politely reminded the room's largely pro-override crowd the meeting was not open to public comments.

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"We're not saying we're not going to put this on the (Town Meeting) ballot, but there are a lot of families in Dracut who right now are wondering if they are going to be able to pay their bills next month," said Richardson. "The median income of this town is not great. There are a lot of people -- who are not here tonight -- who think ($2.9 million) is a great deal of money, and for whom this is not affordable."

Breaking the no-public-comments rule, a person seated near the back of the audience shouted in response to Richardson's statement, "Let 'em vote!"

Selectman Joe DiRocco told School Committee Chairman Michael McNamara he'd lost any chance of the School Committee's gaining town officials' backing for the override when he told a recent PTO meeting that Piendak and selectmen are "anti-education," DiRocco said.

"You made it personal," DiRocco told McNamara, drawing boos from the audience. One audience member shouted to DiRocco, the town's former longtime fire chief, "You have no children in the schools."

"I've been here (almost 27) years, and I can tell you that $2.9 million is a big number," Piendak told O'Connell and the School Committee.

O'Connell drew the loudest applause when he told Piendak he disagreed with him.

"This town is changing, and I think this town is ready for a change," said O'Connell. "They're going to demand the override."

The School Committee indicated they would finalize their override request by the April 19 deadline to have articles included on the Town Meeting ballot.

In other business, selectmen voted unanimously, 5-0, during their regular meeting to place a "marijuana dispensaries moratorium" on the Town Meeting warrant. If passed at Town Meeting, the moratorium would bar legal marijuana sales in town through July 1, 2014.

At the meeting's start, Richardson asked for a moment of silence "to honor the young man who drowned in the pool today (at Greater Lowell Technical High School) in Tyngsboro, and his family," she said.

During the joint board meeting earlier, Piendak proposed an alternate $750,000 override proposal that would be conditional on residents voting to discontinue the 2 percent annual tax for the Community Preservation Committee fund, which generates $750,000 annually to preserve open space, parks and historical sites. Piendak said his override idea would split $200,000 of that amount among the police, fire and public works departments, increasing the likelihood of a majority vote in a special election.

If residents could be convinced to do away with the CPC tax and pass a $750,000 override, Piendak said the school district could receive a boost of $950,000 by coupling their $550,000 share of the override money with $400,000 in free cash from the town treasury.

Piendak's compromise override proposal appeared to gain no traction from either selectmen or School Committee members, however.

Piendak's offer to add $400,000 in town funds to Superintendent of Schools Steven Stone's proposed $27 million school district budget for 2014 - though it was noted by McNamara as being a significantly greater contribution than was provided to the district in past years - would not be enough to avoid laying off personnel Stone said.

Unless the district receives a minimum additional $1.3 million, the personnel reductions may include one of two Lakeview Junior High vice principals, plus several elementary school teachers and "ancillary support staff," Stone reported. He would also be forced to cut freshmen sports and all after-school clubs and activities that draw teacher stipends, Stone said.

Seven residents who stuck around after the joint meeting to sign up to speak during the selectmen's regular meeting all used their allotted two minutes to advocate for the $2.9 million override.

"I have seen the quality of education and after school offerings go down, and it's been really hard to witness," said parent Liz Buckley whose children attend Campbell Elementary School. "There is half a paraprofessional helping out a kindergarten class of 28 kids, and seeing 30 elementary school kids per classroom is horrifying, extremely upsetting.

"I understand everybody's at a different income level, and this economy has not helped anybody, but advocating for money for our schools is extremely important," Buckley added. "I hope people think long and hard about what they want their town to be, and their schools to be."

Several School Committee members and Stone stood at the back of the Harmony Hall during the selectmen's meeting, listening to the residents speak.

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